CM urges Centre to fix minimum price green tea leaves

Chennai, Aug 11 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today urged the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre to fix a reasonable minimum price for green tea leaves grown by small growers in Nilgiris district of the state.

In a letter to Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath, copy of which was released to the media here, the Chief Minister said as condition of the small tea growers was pathetic, the Centre should fix the minimum price, protect them from financial crisis and enable them to raise their standard of living.

Quoting a Madras High Court order dated June 15, 2007, directing the authorities to consider the representation made by the tea growers for minimum price and pass appropriate orders in two weeks, Mr Karunanidhi said he would be grateful for early action.

He said many of the small tea growers had mortgaged their land for raising the tea crops and were unable to repay the loan amount. Since 1998, they were agitating for fixing a reasonable price for green tea leaves.

When the DMK was in coalition government and late Murasoli Maran was Commerce Minister, the farmers were given subsidy and the import duty on tea was increased from 15 to 35 per cent so as to discourage the import of tea from foreign countries, Mr Karunanidhi recalled.

He said the Nilgiris district accounted for more than 70 per cent of total tea production in Tamil Nadu. The price paid for the green tea varied from region to region and factory to factory. The prices are fixed by the individual tea manufacturing factory, after taking into account, the sale proceeds of made tea and the manufacturing cost, the Chief Minister said.

UNI